We have listed a small selection of reasonably priced coins for those seeking an unusual historical gift. Within the USA, these should be there on time for Xmas. If you are overseas and want them sent to FedEx, the shipping cost will be an extra $50. That is the basic fee if it is one […]

Gallic Emperor Victorinus (268-270AD) was a soldier under the first Gallic Emperor Postumus, who possibly elevated him to the post of praetorian prefect after putting down a rebellion by Laelianus in 269AD. However, Postumus was murdered by his own troops organized by Marius, who became the new emperor. It was Victorinus who organized the overthrow of Marius, and subsequently, Victorinus was declared emperor by the troops. There was a rebellion in the city known today as Autun, where he laid a siege that took seven months. After his victory, he was assassinated by one of his own officers.

This hoard demonstrates the contagion of debasement from the Roman Empire. Had they continued to mint coins in silver, they would have been hoarded and spread throughout the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, this hoard is of exceptional quality, showing that they were barely in circulation. Thus, these are generally Extremely Fine, most likely once again a hoard buried during the separation wars from the Roman Empire, and the owner never survived.

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Gaius Tetricus (271-274AD) was the last emperor of the Gallic Empire which split from Rome in 260AD upon the capture of Valerian I by the Persians. It is possible that he had struck a deal with Aurelian to surrender and rejoin the Roman Empire in return for him being allowed to retire with his son.

This is a group of high-grade coins which are not so easy to find of this period.

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Aurelian (270-275AD) was the great restorer. He is the one who built the wall that still surrounds Rome today. He constructed that due to the swarm of barbarian invasions. His coinage reflects the first monetary reform that provides the bounce coming out of the low on our chart. The workmanship is greatly improved, and the coins take on a generally uniform look. They are marked “XXI” or “KA” and this states that the coins, although are still bronze, now contain 1/20th part silver. This reflects the official acknowledgment of this chemical process to create silver plated bronze coins. Now there is no return to silver coinage, just a claim that a tiny portion of the coinage is now silver mixed in with the bronze.

Aurelian’s reform is clearly extensive. The increases both the size and the weight of the antoniniani as they now took on a more uniform appearance. Aurelian officially adopted the silver-plating process and increased the size and weight of the gold coins from 5.5 g to 6.5 g. He made no attempt however to reintroduce any silver coinage. Additionally, he made an extensive production of coins bearing his wife’s portrait Severina. These coins however are approximately 3 times as common as those of his wife.

Aurelian is assassinated because of his reforms. The internal bureaucrats, corrupt as we see they are today, plot against him to prevent him from cleaning the house so to speak. So, we see clear parallels – (1) Rome split because of the monetary crisis just as did the USSR, and (2) the bureaucrats were running the government (BACKROOM DICTATORSHIP). Because it was the bureaucrats who killed Aurelian rather than a general, we have a brief period of the Interregnum where the Senate issued two bronze coins without the image of an emperor.

These are the bronze coins with the silver wash generally missing which have been in circulation so the condition is VF/XF.

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Gordian III (238-244AD) became a young emperor of only 13, who found himself orphaned during his childhood, and was then thrust into the politics of the world. Historia Augusta tells us that he was a light-hearted and handsome young man but did not possess the qualities necessary to be emperor of Rome. Here we have a very nice hoard of higher quality bronze Sestertius.

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Greek Tetradrachms became the common monetary unit as a function of inflation and economic expansion in the Greek world. The early monetary system began with hemi-obol, obol, drachm, and a didrachm (2 drachms) in 545BC in Athens for example, there was a transition from didrachms to tetradrachms which occurred during c. 515–510 BC, which reflected the age of inflation. These coins are circulated and generally Very Fine. We have only a limited supply of these coins, which were the first One-World Currency in history. The same design was struck among all the cities conquered by Alexander. Each displays the mint mark of the city where they were struck.

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The first One-World Currency ever to be issued in the West – those of Alexander the Great. The design of these coins displays the head of Herakles right, wearing a lion skin and on the reverse appears Zeus Aëtophoros seated left.

This hoard of Alexander the Great drachms is of higher quality than typically found and are from a hoard that was purchased for our study of the World Monetary System. These are the ONLY One World Currency to have EVER been created in the Western World. Not even Rome was able to achieve a unified monetary system throughout its empire. That distinction belongs ONLY to Alexander the Great.

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Pictured here are the debased coins of Gallienus. Most of these once silver coins are not merely reduced in weight, but are struck in bronze and are generally of a very poor quality with respect to workmanship, style, weight, and regularity. Precisely as the USA and all countries did in 1965, the Romans also removed silver from the coinage, but in modern times we replaced it with a white meal (nickel) to give the appearance of silver. The Romans pulled a similar trick. They issued the coins in bronze, and then silver plated them to make them appear to be silver. Such coins that survive with the silver plating intact are naturally much more difficult to find. The silver plating wore off quickly, and any hoard coins that are cleaned that had the silver still present, end up removing the silver to get rid of the corrosion. Pictured to left, are four coins with much of the silver plating intact, but as often the case, they are badly corroded. Bronze does not survive well in the ground. Consequently, finding acceptable specimens with the silver intact is very difficult.

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In the Black Sea Region, there was the city of Olbia is an archaeological site of an ancient Greek city on the shore of Ukraine. The bronze dolphin coinages of ancient Olbia are one of the most fascinating bronze coinages of the Black Sea area. They are absolutely unique in both shape and format. The Olbians adopted a casting method like the ancient Romans of this period. They created these dolphin-shaped coins for some reason rather than the traditional round coinage of their neighbors and indeed the entire Greek world. Their inspiration no doubt was that a very large population of bottle-nose dolphins have existed in the Black Sea.

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